Electronic Arts may be expanding its empire with a big buyout of social games developer Playfish, the UK-headquartered company that makes games for Facebook, MySpace, iPhone and Android. Cost to EA is rumored to be a quarter billion bucks.

Inside Social Games reports that EA may have secretly snapped up Playfish weeks ago, adding its popular social games Pet Society, Restaurant City and others to the mega-publisher's portfolio. The site expects a formal announcement soon, but neither parties appear to be commenting.

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Silicon Alley Insider says it too has a source that confirms EA's purchase of Playfish, but wouldn't put a price tag on the buy out.